Amadeus and Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway company, announced the opening of Deutsche Bahn’s first agency in China, using booking technology from Amadeus to sell tickets for both Deutsche Bahn and other European railway providers. The partnership creates new opportunities to serve Chinese travelers planning European itineraries, Amadeus notes.
The agency, which is called Bizhub International Travel, is based in Beijing. It will offer the same ticket and service options for private and business customers as any Deutsche Bahn travel center in Germany, including access to the full range of Deutsche Bahn rail content.
The move follows the recent decision by the China National Tourism Association (CNTA) to open up the outbound tourism market in China to foreign operators for the first time on a pilot basis and allows both Amadeus and Deutsche Bahn to finally leverage the most lucrative part of the Chinese tourism market.
“Many people travel to Germany and our goal is to highlight the advantages of traveling by train while the traveler is still in their home country building their trip. This partnership gives them the ability to book their entire trip – flight, hotel and train travel – all in one place,” says Jürgen Büchy, CEO of Deutsche Bahn Vertrieb GmbH. “We made the decision to partner with Amadeus because their German Rail booking technology is a market leader and is coupled with a strong international presence. The reliable, state-of-the-art solution provides the travel seller with access to DB's full content offer.”
Diane Bouzebiba of Amadeus Rail adds, “Recent market liberalization in the Chinese tourism industry has given European providers of travel services an opportunity to serve the Chinese traveler at travel decision time. While rail keeps gaining ground as a preference of those who travel within Europe, Deutsche Bahn continues to deliver a top-level service and is now making their offer available to more travelers worldwide. This joint initiative between Deutsche Bahn and Amadeus shows how two market leaders can build a long term business relationship, and make a travel reservation easier in a key tourism market such as China”.
